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Anyone remember reading this epic trilogy? When it came out in 2000 -- a story of the past and future, which brought many TNG and VOY characters to struggle together with the Deep Space Crew to save the universe from nothing less than the Apocalypse, -- I was dubious about the mythological aspects but wowed all the less. I've read it multiple times over the years, and last night i picked up the first volume to see if it was good as I remembered.

I remember loving it back when I read it around '03 or '04. I had the big mega omnibus edition with all three of them, but I seem to have misplaced it, which is a shame. Every so often the back of my mind thinks of it and I want to re-read it, but I have no idea where the stupid thing is .

My vague memory now is that the first part was just a fun mystery, but the second part was an epic and over the top alt-future adventure that felt like a crazy Shatnerverse entry (no surprise, since the Reeves-Stevenses co-write those books.) The stuff with Picard designing the megaship that was going to fix everything (IIRC...I don't recall the details anymore) was fascinating, and all the unexpected places various other "regulars" ended up were cool to see too. The last book was a terrifically mind-bending romp with a smaller yet even more exciting scope. It's probably the one I want to read again the most. Great books!

It was a big, epic adventure and I enjoyed it a lot, although part three couldn't possibly top the end of part 2!

Spoilers...

I loved the way the timelines were treated - the DS9ers knew parallel timelines existed and theorized that they may be caused by time travel, but they didn't know for sure. Stuff like Odo not wanting to leave Vic behind because this Vic might be stuck all alone for eternity in an alternate timeline even if everything was reset from Odo's perspective was touching.

I didn't by that technobabble about following identical trajectories to move through time in your own universe, and the elaborate plot to hide time tampering until the last second didn't make sense/was wishful thinking (it's still an alternate reality in which the bombs exist, whether they're found or not. By default there's one timeline where you set the bombs and one where you didn't).

But none of that got in the way of the fun. It took DS9's lore and put it into an even more epic story. Great!

It was a really fun read. It always felt like there was some cool tidbits / easter eggs every few chapaters. Characterizationw as strong too. For some reason I seem to remember that I liked all of the books, but really liked the last one.

I didn't by that technobabble about following identical trajectories to move through time in your own universe, and the elaborate plot to hide time tampering until the last second didn't make sense/was wishful thinking (it's still an alternate reality in which the bombs exist, whether they're found or not. By default there's one timeline where you set the bombs and one where you didn't).

Yeah, but the point was not to eradicate that alternate timeline, it was to make sure they didn't alter/cancel out their own timeline in the process of saving the universe. It actually works out pretty well and avoids the usual time-travel cliches. (There's actually a bit in DTI: Watching the Clock where Lucsly reflects on how good a job the DS9 crew did of respecting the Temporal Prime Directive during those events.)

I'm currently reading it for the first time. A while back, I found an omnibus edition in the "hurt" books section of our local bookstore, read the blurb on the back cover, thought it interesting, so I bought it. Since that time, I've bought an ebook reader, so I bought it (the omnibus) again, this time as an ebook.

Right now I'm in the first half of the second book. One thing is for certain, to me: The second book is (at least so far) a lot slower reading than the first. Probably because I prefer mysteries (but not detective novels) over warfare.

I thought these books were insane. Just bugfuck bizarro nuts. I liked the first one a lot, but the other two...

Especially Inferno. How many unbelievable technobabble insane ranting bitchfixes did it take for them to make that plot even pretend to make sense?

It always weirds me out when people like this trilogy so much. Like, compared to the deliberate, connected, character-driven, generally brilliant Marco-edited-everything (Vanguard, DS9-R, VOY-R-R, Destiny, Lost Era, etc), this was just wildass nonsense.

I actually liked Jadzia's explanation on why they had to return to the past via the same method they arrived in the future. It made sense, in a weird sort of way. Also, that bit where they're about to be airlocked and the Bajoran crewmembers offer to sacrifice themselves, but Worf won't let them...I liked that.

Also, I thought the "dueling Starfleets" was pretty funny.

__________________
"But here you are, in the ninth
Two men out and three men on
Nowhere to look but inside
Where we all respond to PRESSURE!" - Billy Joel

Especially Inferno. How many unbelievable technobabble insane ranting bitchfixes did it take for them to make that plot even pretend to make sense?

It always weirds me out when people like this trilogy so much. Like, compared to the deliberate, connected, character-driven, generally brilliant Marco-edited-everything (Vanguard, DS9-R, VOY-R-R, Destiny, Lost Era, etc), this was just wildass nonsense.

The plot does make sense. It's just very complicated. And it's one of the most scientifically literate Star Trek prose tales ever written. Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens know their physics as well as anyone who's written ST literature on an ongoing basis, and while Millennium certainly took liberties for the sake of the story, it held together pretty logically for the most part.

I really loved it (and I loved the slightly-related spin-off game, The Fallen), but I definitely don't include it in my 'personal continuity' of stuff that actually happened on DS9. It was just too crazy!

Loved the explanation of how they derive Stardates! I've actually recited that to friends who ask what stardates are.

I actually liked Jadzia's explanation on why they had to return to the past via the same method they arrived in the future. It made sense, in a weird sort of way.

Right, but then they contradicted it in the next book.

And I never could figure out why the station persisted in existence after it had EXPLODED as some kind of imaginary construction where, for some reason, holograms and Odo could roam around but no one else.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not like I just went "bleh science" and skimmed it; Christopher - your science-heavy stuff is some of my absolute favorite. I just felt like they had this great idea for how a story should play out, and bitchfixed the science to fit it in any way they could, rather than using science to construct the ideas in the first place the way you do.

I actually liked Jadzia's explanation on why they had to return to the past via the same method they arrived in the future. It made sense, in a weird sort of way.

Right, but then they contradicted it in the next book.

And I never could figure out why the station persisted in existence after it had EXPLODED as some kind of imaginary construction where, for some reason, holograms and Odo could roam around but no one else.